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Ernest Schelling

Ernest Schelling was born in Belvedere, N.J. on July 26, 1876. He studied
music with his father and made his debut as a pianist at the Academy of Music in
Philadelphia at the age of four. By age seven, he was taken to study music in
Europe. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire and worked with many great
masters of Europe including Goetschius, Huber, Barth, Moszkowski and
Leschetizky. He played for the crowned heads of Europe and also for such musical
luminaries as Rubinstein and Brahms. At the age of twenty he began studying with
Ignace Paderewski and was his only pupil for three years. This would turn out to
be a great life-long friendship and an important musical partnership for both.

At the beginning of the century, Schelling toured Europe, South and North
America with brilliant success, gaining a reputation as a remarkable pianist. He
then took a post as the court musician to the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
and began to compose as well. Schelling wrote many works that were often played
during his lifetime, including works for piano, orchestra, and chamber groups.
Since his death these have regrettably fallen from the repertoire. His most
popular work was "A Victory Ball," a symphonic poem for orchestra based on a
poem by Alfred Noyes, which received very appreciative reviews in America and
Europe.

In 1917, he joined the U.S. Army intelligence corps, and served bravely in
the First World War. He was highly decorated not just by the U.S., but also by
Poland, Spain and France, and was discharged as a Major at the end of the war.

In 1924, Schelling was appointed conductor of the Young People's Concerts of
the New York Philharmonic Symphonic Society. These children's concerts were to
take up the bulk of his time and energy for the rest of his life. The concerts
were a combination of lecture, picture show and orchestral performance that he
designed to encourage in children a love and understanding of music. He not only
conducted these concerts in New York but all over the country and even the
world, earning great success everywhere from Philadelphia and Los Angeles to
London and Rotterdam. From 1936 to 1938, he also took on an appointment as music
director of the Baltimore Symphony.

Schelling was also very active in many other aspects of musical life. He
organized benefits for composers, worked with the Musicians Relief Fund, and was
the president of the Edward MacDowell Association beginning in 1929. He was
friendly with most of the great musicians from America and Europe and often
entertained them at his summer home on Lake Geneva. He greatly facilitated the
acceptance of American music and musicians in Europe and helped bring many great
European musicians to America, including Enrique Granados whom Schelling
championed until Granados's untimely death in 1916. Schelling died in his home
in New York City on December 8, 1939.

THE COLLECTION

The Ernest Schelling collection contains a large variety of materials
reflecting his diverse interests. There is a great deal of information on Ernest
Schelling himself, including detailed sections on his various careers as
pianist, composer, conductor and author. The collection also contains a great
deal of correspondence, mostly from musicians. This includes a great number of
letters from Granados as well as from Fritz Kreisler and Josef Hofmann. The bulk
of the papers relate to the Children's Concerts including lecture, program and
slide materials. There is also a substantial score collection that features not
only Schelling's own compositions and other rare piano scores, but also valuable
early editions of Chopin and Beethoven and several very rare 18th century
prints. Lastly, there is a quite sizable collection of iconography of various
types, including many photographs of Schelling and his family.

Last update: Mar 23, 2015

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